Teachers' views of using e-learning for non-traditional students in higher education across three disciplines [nursing, chemistry and management] at a time of massification and increased diversity in higher education

Background: The expansion of the higher educational sector in the United Kingdom over the last two decades
to meet political aspirations of the successive governments and popular demand for participation in the sector
(the Widening Participation Agenda) has overlapped with the introduction of e-learning.
Objectives: This paper describes teachers' views of using e-learning for non-traditional students in higher education
across three disciplines [nursing, chemistry and management] at a time of massification and increased diversity in
higher education.
Design: A three phase, mixed methods study; this paper reports findings from phase two of the study.
Settings: One university in England.
Participants: Higher education teachers teaching on the nursing, chemistry and management programmes.
Methods: Focus groups with these teachers.
Findings: Findings from these data show that teachers across the programmes have limited knowledge of whether
students are non-traditional or what category of non-traditional status they might be in. Such knowledge as they
have does not seem to influence the tailoring of teaching and learning for non-traditional students. Teachers in
chemistry and nursing want more support from the university to improve their use of e-learning, as did teachers
in management but to a lesser extent.
Conclusions: Our conclusions confirm other studies in the field outside nursing which suggest that non-traditional
students' learning needs have not been considered meaningfully in the development of e-learning strategies in
universities. We suggest that this may be because teachers have been required to develop e-learning at the
same time as they cope with the massification of, and widening participation in, higher education. The findings
are of particular importance to nurse educators given the high number of non-traditional students on nursing
programmes